


Loving Him Was Red (Tomatoes)

by hlopushka



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Alternate Universe - Market, Cats, Food, Fruit, Humor, M/M, Not Beta Read, POV Multiple, Vegetables
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-06-24 00:17:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15618243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hlopushka/pseuds/hlopushka
Summary: Me: I'm never writing another WIPAlso me: How about a WIP where Jaebum is a farmer selling his tomatoes at a farmer market?One of my favourite places in the world is Borough market in London so the market is hugely inspired by that. I also have no idea how anything works but I just wanted to write about tomatoes. They are red and shapely and wonderful. And you could chop some tomatoes and watermelon and get an amazing salad.Ergh, whatever. I love farmer markets and food.





	1. An apple a day

The farmer market Jaebum sells his produce at opens at 10am. By that time Jaebum is already up and running for about five hours.

He wakes around five and leaves his warm bed to his three grumpy sleepy cats. He has a quick breakfast after the shower and leaves the house to Nora the Cat as she's the eldest. 

Outside he gets his van out and carries baskets with apples, boxes of berries and a head of cabbage or ten incide. Tomatoes, the pride of the Im farm, are the centerpiece of the tight structure inside. 

By the time Jaebum is done packing, the summer helpers – nine local kids working at Jaebum's family farm for pocket money – are already arriving. Jaebum nods at all of them and gives Chan who's the eldest and serves as kind of a leader for the group the tasks for today. He's not too worried to leave them unsupervised since it's not their first summer helping at the farm. And anyway Jaebum's mom will drop in a few hours to make sure the kids don't miss their lunch. 

The ride to Seoul where the market is located doesn't take too long but Jaebum has to make sure to be early to skip all the traffic. His precious cargo can't be left for too long in the toxic environment of a moving shaking vehicle. 

Driving usually calms Jaebum as he's singing softly to songs on the radio and thinks of nothing at all. 

When Jaebum is finally at the market it's already half past nine and he has to hurry up to make sure his stand is up and running by the time the market officially starts. 

Jimin, who cooks and sells Thai dishes – Khao Pad and some curry flavour of the day – across from Jaebum greets him cheerfully as usual while preparing her enormous pans when Jaebum gets to his stand. 

“Junior-shi was looking for you,” she says to him today. 

“Oh? What did he want? And he told you not to call him that,” Jaebum replies absentmindedly finishing the tomato display. He'd put cauliflowers to the side, it'll look nice next to each other. 

“There's only one Park Jinyoung in my heart, and he makes the best pasta in the city. Junior-shi can't relate.”

Jaebum kindly doesn't bring up Park Jimin the idol. 

And then he gets the first customer and after that there's no time for chatting. 

Jinyoung drops by around eleven when Jaebum is trying to finish eating a duck sandwich made by Taec-hyung from around the corner as covertly and quickly as possible before the lunch crowd rushes in. 

“Are you still interested in doing Saturday markets, too?” Jinyoung asks without any preamble, casually, as if he isn't proposing to Jaebum a place at the most profitable day of the week. Jinyoung, who is a market administration employee, has time and time again rejected Jaebum's request since the market was always full for the Saturdays. “We have an opening starting from the next week.”

Jaebum agrees so fast he chokes a little. 

“Don't kill my company, Junior-shi,” Jimin calls sweetly serving some curry to a customer. 

“Don't make me make your life a bureaucratic hell,” Jinyoung shakes his finger at her and runs away for some other administrative task. 

“What a dork,” says Jimin and winks at the next customer.

“Jimin, stop flirting with innocent people,” shouts Jae (who sells a very good roasted chicken) from two vendors down. Jaebum doesn’t even react since that’s par for the course when working here. Some tourists turn their heads fascinated by the loud market. The locals totally ignore the bickering calmly picking up fresh basil or early potatoes or, of course, Jaebum’s glasshouse tomatoes.

It's a usual Tuesday.


	2. Leaf me alone

The first Saturday is wild. 

Jaebum gets to keep his usual spot so he doesn't need to dramatically redesign his display. His usual neighbour on the right gets replaced by a colourful smoothie stand called BOOMBAYAH run by three girls who are apparently great friends with Lisa, Jimin’s Thai co-owner. They chat all the way through the day, with Lisa, with customers, with Jinyoung even. 

“That's blatant favouritism,” Jimin calls him out when he pops up again to chat with Jisoo. “You never pay that much attention to our establishment.”

Jinyoung's noticeable ears turn noticeably red. “That's because I'm respected there.”

“Sure, Junior-shi, whatever you say,” Jimin turns away, amazingly dismissive as usual. Jaebum would have proposed if he weren't half scared of her. 

All in all it's just tiring. Most of the new visitors they get are after market food so Jimin and Lisa serve a huge crowd but Jaebum also sells way more than his typical volume. 

He didn't sleep much trying to prepare everything and then he couldn't sleep too excited to be finally there and then he had to get up earlier than usual to finish preparations. All in all it means that he's almost dying from the lack of sleep by the time the lunch crowd finally leaves and the market gets a bit quieter. But the lunch rush isn't as defined on Saturday as it is during the week. This time it starts from around eleven and doesn't exactly stop until way after three. By four Jaebum has stopped counting down minutes and just hopes for the best. 

So the guy who drops by at fifteen minutes to five and starts chatting everyone up and making more noise than the whole lunch crowd? Jaebum will honestly pay him to just leave. Jimin and others are happy to see the guy though, so Jaebum is trying to be nice. 

“Jackson, what the fuck are you doing here?” exclaims Jimin while scooping up some fried rice for him and Jaebum guesses she's unbelievably happy to see him judging by the level of disgust on her face. 

“Hey, what's that?” they guy looks like kind of a gangster in all the sport clothes, sunglasses hiding his whole face and an enormous sparkly chain on his neck but he sounds like a very annoyed child talking to Jimin. He also sounds like he doesn't know Korean, and Jaebum immediately dislikes him. “It's a free country and I'm a free man.”

“Junior-shi will have your ass,” Jimin says to him as he goes to high-five the BOOMBAYAH girls. 

“Jinyoung would love to,” he makes it sound like an innuendo and Jaebum is offended on Jinyoung's behalf. Jimin, the unloyal traitor, just laughs. 

Jaebum decides he's about done with the whole situation. The time is close enough to five and he thinks he can start pre-packing activities.

But before he even starts – “Hey,” the guy says right at Jaebum, and Jaebum has to react, right? 

“I'm Jackson,” says Jackson and even takes off his glasses, and Jaebum reluctantly introduces himself, too. His voice is now deeper than when he was trash-talking with Jimin and he smiles, and his face becomes immediately more likable, Jaebum has to admit. 

“So you're selling tomatoes,” Jackson says, and Jaebum tries not to be irritated. The guy is obviously trying to make a small talk or, what even, might be even trying to buy some. 

“Yeah, all locally grown, at my farm,” Jaebum says proudly. 

“Organic?” Jackson makes huge eyes and looks immediately more interested. Maybe Jaebum will be able to sell him a few dozens? 

“Yeah, we have a certificate,” Jaebum says and starts pointing out which produce is organic. Jackson starts asking more questions, in details, and Jaebum tries to tell him as much as possible. He even forgets that he was irritated by the guy, because he sounds so awed by Jaebum's tomatoes. But he says tiredly when he sees Jimin already closing down, “We usually have more variety but today we sold out a bit. Look, just try what we have and if you like it, just come back?”

“Deal,” Jackson says and points out two remaining types of tomatoes, “I'll just have two of your best ones, then. Five of each, please.” 

Jackson gets out his wallet to pay, and Jaebum starts packing everything. He sees the last few cucumbers and says, “Hey, I'll give you some cucumbers as a gift, too, okay?”

He smiles at Jackson, and Jackson blinks back. 

“Wow,” Jackson says a little stunned as if he never received free gifts before, “I mean, yes, sure, of course.”

What a weird man. 

Jaebum gets everything and puts one of his cards into the cucumber packet. “This is my information,” he says politely as he handles Jackson the vegetables. “Please come back.”

He smiles again, and Jackson says kind of breathy, “Of course.”

“That was entertaining,” says Jimin after Jackson gets away, and Jaebum is a little bit spooked. He forgot she was still there, to be honest. “He didn't even say goodbye.”

“Impolite of him,” Jaebum shrugs starting to pack. He can't believe he's survived his first Saturday. 

“Impolite of you to smile so much,” Jimin says and Jaebum looks at her, because what? 

“What do you mean?” is his smile weird and off-putting? Does he scare away the customers? 

“Forget it,” Jimin cleans up the last of her stand and leaves with the big bag for her car leaving Jaebum a little puzzled. 

He gets home around seven, feeds his cats and just passes out. 

He gets awaken around two in the morning by insistent buzzing of a doorbell. He stumbles a bit in the dark before reaching the door. 

“Sorry to intrude but I'm homeless now because of you so you'll have to take responsibility,” says the guy from the market, Jackson, when Jaebum finally opens the door.


	3. A big dill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to have more characters! And a new POV! And a pairing tag! Oh My.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay!

On Saturdays Jackson gets to sleep in and if things go well he can have one day to forget about his business. 

His roommate leaves their shared apartment for work in the middle of the night and sometimes, when Jackson comes home on Friday so late it's already early on Saturday, he sees him having a breakfast, both of them too sleepy to have any kind of conversation. 

So he wakes up around eleven and gets out for a much needed run. He always jokes that his business is very much dependent on how fast he can run, and it's not 100% joke so he trains all the time when he gets time. 

After that he gets home and has some breakfast. He's not a big fan of cooking so he raids his roommate's part of the refrigerator and, if he can't find anything he likes or he just wants to annoy Jinyoung's face, he goes to the market.  
Jackson met Jinyoung through a job. 

Jackson knows all the hipster places in the city since that's where his clients are: young and successful, bored and with money to spare. Jackson finds them and he hooks them up, gets them interested even if a lot of people are reluctant at first. But Jackson's the best at his job and his stuff is the best stuff so most of his clients are regulars.

Jinyoung's market is one of such places, but Jackson has long since stopped trying to find clients there. A few years back when his client list was still very short he tried to but got to know Park Jinyoung, the market's administrator, instead. Jackson also met his wrath when he found out what Jackson was doing at his market – Jackson tried to smooth things over with the guy, invited him for drinks. Park Jinyoung was Mr. Goodie Two Shoes, that was clear as day, but Jackson was hard to say no to.

Back then Jackson had a trial shipment from Denmark and in the end he and Jinyoung got so unbelievably wasted together. 

“Will I get a hangover?” Jinyoung asked looking suspiciously at the white substance before him. 

“If you don't throw up immediately, probably not,“ shrugged Jackson, pouring them more soju, “but this shit is really addictive.”

Let's just say that Jackson got a very good friend out of the deal even though a very drunk Park Jinyoung said to him a lot of unfavourable Korean words Jackson had to Google meaning for while Jinyoung was miserably puking his guts out next to a bus stop. All in all it's almost a success story, alright? 

Anyway, that Saturday he woke up close to twelve and after a long run he found some rice for breakfast at the rice cooker. Well, he'll drop by the market for lunch then. 

After the boring breakfast Jackson tidied his room a bit. After that he checked with Bambam that today's deliveries went well. They talked about the upcoming week schedule and by the time Jackson ends the call it's already past 3pm. If he's going to have lunch at Jinyoung’s he'd better get ready to go. 

The market is walking distance from Jackson's place. He passes a small organic cafe and gets himself some tea to go after chatting up the cute barista girl. Usually Jackson's days just speed by with him running about and to have some peace of mind on Saturdays is truly a blessing.

When he gets to the market he spends some time looking around and decides to have some Belarusian potato pancakes at a new place that catches his eye. It happens to be amazing. He chats a little with a boy running the stand and talks to his favourite ajuma selling takoyaki. 

By the time he gets to Jimin’s corner it's already well past four. He salutes her and Lisa and she gets him his rice and two servings of insults as usual and when he turns to greet the smoothie gang he is very surprised to see a vegetable stand instead of a tofu one. 

“Where is Dahyun,” he asks Jimin casually, “and who's that pretty man over there?”

“Junior-shi will kick you in the balls for sexually assaulting his vendors,” Jimin tells him unhelpfully, and Jackson honestly should have known better. He turns to the sulky guy who has a stoic face, a nose right as an arrow and two cute little moles under his left eyebrow. He also looks like he would punch Jackson if Jackson talks to him so of course Jackson does. 

He is so dazed by the beautiful man's smile he leaves the market without ever talking to Jinyoung and as he gets home he sees an unanswered message on his phone. He winces. For someone so bad at replying to others Jinyoung gets very whiny about being ignored. 

He leaves the beautiful man's (Jaebum's as his business card reads) vegetables in the kitchen and goes to his room to get a nap. He is rudely awakened a few hours later when Youngjae comes home and starts immediately screaming. 

“Jackson Wang, why the hell are there cucumbers in our house?” he shouts very loudly, and Youngjae can get very loud for such a tiny person. 

In the end Youngjae maneuvers the sleepy Jackson out of their apartment with only a bag of offending vegetables in hands and shuts the door at his face. 

“Get out of here, you've betrayed my trust,” he shouts from inside the apartment. 

“Youngjae, come on” Jackson tries to reason with him, but Youngjae wouldn't listen no matter what. “Where would I go? I'm barefoot.”

Before he can react Youngjae stealthily opens the door, throws a pair of snickers at his face (Jackson ducks at the very last moment) and the door is shut again. 

“I don't even have money,” Jackson calls out, but it seems that Youngjae is already over this situation no matter how long Jackson waits. 

They should have installed a digital lock, Jackson thinks regretfully, why haven't they. And why the fuck did he buy the forbidden vegetables, what was he thinking? Jackson looks at the paper bag and sees the farmer’s – Jaebum's – card. He recalls Jaebum's face and, yeah, remembers what he was thinking. But the guy, why did he punish Jackson so much? Jackson wasn't even that annoying. He didn't ask for any cucumbers, he's pretty sure he didn't, so why the fuck the guy had to step in and leave Jackson homeless. 

Jackson looks at the card again noting the farm address. It's not close but it's not unreachable by a very long walk. 

Well, if the guy is the faulty one for leaving Jackson without a place to sleep, he will have to take responsibility.

So he picks up his shoes from where they fell and puts them on. 

Im Jaebum, here he comes.


	4. Cucumber agenda

Jackson wakes up to being suffocated by something warm and furry. He thinks for a second that all his dirty business has caught up with him and he's being killed. But then a noisy cat trying to make a home on Jackson's face falls down on his chest and Jackson can breath again. He looks around but recognises neither the white cat now licking its paw nor the old futon he's lying on. 

The room seems to serve as a living room with a small TV set and a comfortably looking sofa and a wooden table across from it. The farthest to Jackson part of the room smoothly transitions into what looks like a kitchen and dining area. Jackson's futon lies right next to a small but tightly packed bookcase and he stares at the spines of the books at the lower shelf for some time. They are mostly poetry books mixed with some manhwas and a lot of self-improvement brochures. 

“That's a bit, um,” Jackson muses aloud and the cat stops trying to dig a hole in the bedding to look at Jackson, “odd, that's a bit odd,” Jackson finishes, and the cat blinks its odd coloured eyes at him. 

“Not as odd as you, right,” Jackson scratches the cat under the chin. It scoops closer and Jackson smiles, pleased. 

“Usually if I wake up to unfamiliar beds I don't remember falling asleep at, my sleeping partners are entirely more,” Jackson makes a gesture to indicate someone very shapely. The cat playfully bites his hand as if offended, and Jackson hurries to finish, “more human, that's what I mean, someone more human. Not that sleeping with you wasn't a wonderful relaxing experience.”

Suffocating aside. 

“I wish I could say the same about you,” comes a grumpy response from behind Jackson, and when he turns around there's a guy of Jackson's dreams looming in a door frame. He's dressed in a very worn long-sleeved t-shirt that hugs his chest and arms nicely and a pair of comfy sweatpants. He looks like he's just had a very good work out outside in the sun, all sweaty and warm. He holds a big bowl of tomatoes in his arms, and that's when Jackson's brain clues in. 

The guy from the market, remembers Jackson. Im Jaebum, the sneaky farmer with some kind of a cucumber agenda. 

Despite his relaxed pose against the doorframe Jaebum looks just like he sounds – like Jackson barged in unwelcome at his house in the middle of the night, gave a nonsense excuse and made the guy host him for a night. 

Well. In the daylight it does sound kind of crazy. Not the strangest thing Jackson has done in his life, though. 

He gets up to get on an even level and because he just wants to admire the guy at a closer range. Only halfway up he notices he doesn't have his pants on but maybe it's a plus anyway. Jackson's body is a moneymaker all on its own. His legs are unfortunately not as long as Yugyeom’s or Bambam’s and his ass might be not as round as Jinyoung's but still. On the second thought the true best performer would be Jackson's abs and he wonders absentmindedly if he can casually take his t-shirt off? He makes a mental note to always sleep topless from now on. 

“I have it on a very good authority that I'm a great lay,” he jokes coming closer to Jaebum and leans as casually as he can against the wall, too, “so whatever are your grievances I request a repeat performance to convince you otherwise.”

He wiggles his eyebrows a little. 

“What,” says Jaebum, his cheeks going pinkish and he loudly protests, spluttering incomplete sentences “we didn't!.. What are?.. Grievances?”

Explaining a joke is the most embarrassing thing in the world so Jackson feels like he's also kind of getting red in the face. 

“I take the customer satisfaction very seriously,” he says because he is kind of dumb and always tries to joke out of any awkward situation even the ones caused by his joking in the first place. And then, with a sparkle of inspiration, he attacks, “And you should, too. What kind of a monster sneaks in an unwanted cucumber to a stranger’s bag?”

Jaebum (and Jackson thinks it's fine to be that familiar in his head to a guy he's destined to marry) looks like he's tired but that's not a new reaction to Jackson anyway.

“Look,” Jaebum says wearily, finally entering the room and passing Jackson to place the bowl on the table and then bending down to pick up another cat Jackson never noticed before that moment, all black this time. Jackson swoons inwardly a little looking at the strong arms and sure hands holding the pet so tenderly. The cat hugs Jaebum's arm with its tiny paws and Jackson is about to propose. And he's not even a cat person. “No one is that crazy about cucumbers as you make your roommate to be, and I didn't sneak anything in. I've asked if you'd like some, you said yes!”

“Of course I said yes, are there a lot of people who say no to you?” Jackson says very reasonably. Have this guy seen himself? Jackson would have purchased some hot pepper paste if he was selling and would have died eating it. 

Jaebum blinks at him a few time and then, inexplicably, laughs. 

“You're a funny guy,” he says, “do you want some breakfast before you go?”

“Thanks,” Jackson says and starts thinking of the ways to stay. 

He turns to follow Jaebum into the kitchen, but Jaebum stops him with a finger to his chest, “Put on the pants, first!”


	5. Double-Bean (That's His Party)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Planes work magically on me so this chapter is brought to you by one. Also, it's quite easy to tell that I'm reading a lot of badly translated Chinese bl novels!

Bambam’s Saturdays are his favourite days of the week – Jackson hyung has a day off and Bambam is the sole manager of their small but extremely complicated business. Jackson is an owner alright, but Bambam is picking up connections, trying to build up his own side project that will help him either make Jackson accept him as an equal partner or, if it comes to this, let Bambam go independent. 

When Bambam just started working with Jackson, he was only trusted in making the casualiest deliveries. 

“You're not even of age,” Jackson would tell him when Bambam tried to push for more work, “how can I let you go wander the streets with the goods worth hundreds of thousands of won? Now be a good champ and deliver some happiness to the Kimbap grandma around the corner. She wanted her delivery earlier this week.”

But as the time went by Bambam gradually got more into all the parts of the business, and lately Jackson even started taking his Saturdays off after working like a 24/7 store for a few years, no holidays, no vacation. When circles under Jackson's eyes started fading out a bit, Bambam called his mom, honest to god crying. He was getting by on his job, he was doing great. 

Bambam’s mom thankfully supports his weird choice of profession even though it isn't something to easily brag about to the relatives. Bambam is able to support his mom in moving to a better house and even helps to send his younger sister to a good university. Even though Jackson is a crazy workaholic boss, if he is pleased with your work the benefits are great.

So on Saturdays Bambam still has a short call with Jackson somewhere around his lunchtime but it is a short call, just Jackson checking up on the upcoming shipments and stuff like that. Usually by that time Bambam is already done with the regular deliveries for the day and is having an early lunch. 

So this Saturday is nothing unusual. Bambam has a call with Jackson, who sounds like his usual bossy self, while having a burrito bowl with a favourite customer of his. 

After he ends the call, Yugyeom makes huge eyes at him from across the table. 

“It's always so exciting to listen to you guys talk.”

Bambam rolls his eyes, “It's a normal job,” he shrugs, all faux humble. 

“No, I don't know, you and Jackson hyung, you both sound like an Italian mafia when you discuss your stuff, and both of you are foreigners, so it only makes it all weirder.”

“What's weird about that,” Bambam scuffs. “People take pictures of your ugly face and pay you huge money for that, that's what's weird.”

Yugyeom pouts. To be quite honest, he isn't ugly at all, ahahaha, but of course Bambam can't just say that. 

When Bambam found out that Kim Yugyeom, the super star model from Seoul, currently walking all the runways from London to Tokyo, was one of Jackson's clients he got so excited. Deep in his heart (so, not very deep at all, as Jimin often says), Bambam is a very dedicated fashion follower. That was actually how he got to know Jackson hyung in the first place — queueing overnight for a new Adidas collaboration collection with G-Dragon. Jackson had shared his triple cheese sandwich and a blanket with a tiny teenager and the rest is history.

“But still, very interesting. Last week I was in Paris,” walking for Channel, Bambam finishes silently for him, “and I knew about all this stuff you guys sell more than even the French. I've had tons behind the scene. I almost died… A figure of speech!” he hurriedly adds as Bambam chokes on his food. 

“It's not funny,” Bambam kicks him under the table. “What did you have?”

“Well, some of the soft white ones, you know, and some of the blue ones?” 

“Some of the blue ones,” Bambam mocks him back, and Yugyeom makes a face. 

“It's not like I can remember all of you mafia names, you're mafia, mafia, I tell you.”

Bambam rolls his eyes again, but he's a little pleased. Mafia is cool, right? And Bambam feels cool, talking to all those important people, to actual honest to god celebrities (like Yugyeom, but he doesn't count, he's a dork), being on first name basis with them. Of course, Bambam is yet to deliver to anyone from Bigbang, but he knows that Jackson caters to TOP, and any day now Bambam will be the one to do the job. 

Young and successful! Or, even better, young and rich, that's how Bambam rolls. 

Bambam finishes the day parting with Yugyeom at the very high level invitation only night club at Hongdae and he feels like he fits right in with all the shiny and glamorous. He's on top of his game, everyday is a smooth sail to the greater future. 

Next day, Jackson misses their Sunday breakfast, and Bambam eats his food alone as all his calls to Jackson go to voicemail. He doesn't have too much time to worry though, planning his activities for today. After one last call to Jackson's mobile he has to put this thoughts aside and just do the job. Maybe, Jackson is finally letting him do more, or maybe he's caught a cold and, anyway, will have to rely on Bambam to do the job. Either way it's an opportunity and not the one Bambam’s willing to miss. 

But by the time the early morning deliveries are done Bambam has some time for a quick lunch and half an hour to worry about his missing boss. The calls still go to a voicemail, and as time is quickly approaching eleven Bambam begins to worry. Jackson would have to be one hundred percent dead to skip work like that. A tiny bit less, ninety-nine point nine percent dead just wouldn't cut it, Jackson would still endure and work like a crazy man. 

So as the time slowly drifts closer to twelve Bambam is getting more and more worried. He's not yet ready to call Jackson's mom but he's getting close to calling his own. 

He's getting all emotional thinking about Jackson lying dead somewhere in a ditch when his phone erupts into cheerful chorus of Yes or Yes with an unknown number flashing across the screen. 

“Hey, Bambam,” Jackson says when Bambam accepts the call, “sorry didn't call you earlier, I kind of forgot your number. Can you give me a lift?”

As Bambam feels the weight of the world lift up off his shoulders, Jackson adds, “And can you bring some burrata? I found some exceptionally good tomatoes.”


End file.
